Temporary shelter for injured persons



Jan. 17, 1967 E. J. LARSON, JR 3,298,332

TEMPORARY SHELTER FOR INJURED PERSONS Filed April 28, 1965 INVENTOR.

ERA/557' LARSON JR ATTORNEYS United States Patent 3,298,382 TEMPQRARYSHELTER FOR INJURED PERSONS Eriiest J. Larson, Jr., 4808 Duhberry Lane,

Minneapolis, Minn. 55424 *Filed Apr. 28, 1965, Ser. N 451,528

1 1 Claim. (Cl. 135-14) This invention pertains to a temporary shelterfor injured persons and more specifically to a cover for injured personswhich may be attached to an automobile, heater or. the like to maintainsaid injured person comfortable while waitfng for an ambulance. I v i 2In many. instances such as when pedestrians arestruck by automobiles,etc. injured persons must lie; on the ground until an ambulance arrivesto move them. In these instances an injured person is highly susceptibleto pneumonia" and other complications due to the great diflicultyin'maintaining him warm and comfortable.

In the present invention a temporary shelter is provided for injuredpersons to maintain them warm and comfortable until the arrival of anambulance or the like. This temporary shelter includes acover, which maybe rigid and semi-cylindrical with the ends closed or which may beflexible and somewhat inflatable. The cover defines a body receivingopening thereunder and, in conjunction with the ground,completely'encloses the injured person.

The cover has an opening at one end thereof with a passageway such as ahose or the like attached thereto. The other end of the hose is adaptedto be connected to the heater in a police car or the like. Thus, theinjured person isf'stretched out on the ground and the cover is placedover him. The hose communicating with the 1 opening under the cover isattached to the heater in the police caror the like and the blower onthe heater is turned on to force air into the opening under the cover tomaintain'the injured person warm and comfortable until the arrival of anambulance.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a ternporaryshelterfor injured persons.

It is a further object of the present invention to provide a temporaryshelter for injured persons into which warm air under pressure may beintroduced.

It is a futher object of the present invention to provide a temporaryshelter for injured persons which may be quickly and'easily attached tothe heater of an automobile.

These and other objects of the present invention will become apparent tothose skilled in the art upon consideration of the accompanyingspecification, claim, and drawings.

Referring to the drawings, wherein like characters indicate like partsthroughout the figures:

FIG. 1 is a view of the present invention attached to an automobileheater;

FIG. 2 is a view in top plan of the present invention, parts thereofbroken away and shown in section;

FIG. 3 is a sectional view as seen from the line 3-3 in FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a sectional view of the side of the frame; and

FIG. 5 is a detailed view of the frame holding edge of the cover.

In the figures the numeral designates a cover which is generallysemi-cylindrical in shape with the ends thereof closed. The cover 10 maybe composed of a rigid material or, as in the present embodiment, aflexible material which is easily foldable for storage. As can be seenin FIGS. 3 and 5 the edges of the cover material are folded back to forma plurality of loops therearo-und. The material of the cover 10 is cutat the corners and centrally on either side to form a plurality of smallopenings 23 along the bottom which are utilized for circula- 10 oneither side thereof.

"ice

1 tion of air, as will be explained in more detail later, and

aid in assembling the shelter. The turned-back edges on either end ofthe cover material form a single loop 11 along substantially the entireend. Three loops 12, 13 and 14 arei' formed along the lower edge of thecover The described loops may be constructed byf-folding the materialback on itself and fastening-the edge to the main body of the materialby some means such as sewing, heat "sealing,- etc.

An interlocking framelS'fitsinto the loops 11-14 and maintainsjthe edgesof the cover 10 parallel to the ground and fixedly in contact therewith.The frame 15 is composed of two similar end pieces 16 and three sidepieces 17, 18 and 19 on either side thereof. The frame 15 is in generalconstructed of tubular pieces which are hollow and be made of a materialsuch as aluminum for lightness. -p

In this embodiment a tubular-piece 18 is centrally located on eitherside of the frame 15 and the tubular pieces 17 and-19 have a plug 20fixedly secured therein which projects axially from the end thereof andis adapted to insert into-one end' of the tubular piece "18. Thus, whenthe plug20 of the tubular piece 17 is coaxially inserted in oneend ofthe tubular piece 18 and the plug 20 in the endof the tubular piece 19is coaxially inserted in the other end of the tubular piece 18 the threepieces 17, 18 and 19 form a single elongated piece approximately thelength of the cover 10.

Likewise the free ends of the piece 17 and the piece 19 have a plug'21therein which projects axially therefrom. The end pieces 16 have a hole22 therein at either end perpendicular to the longitudinal axis thereofand of a diameter substantially equal to the diameter of the plug 21.Thus, after the side pieces 17, 18 and 19 are assembled in the loops 12,13 and 14 of the cover 10 the end pieces 16 are inserted in the loops 11and the plugs 21 in the tubular pieces 17 and 19 are inserted into theholes 22 on either end of the end pieces 16 to complete the frame 15.

A circular aperture 25 at one end of the cover 10 is constructed byproviding a small opening and pulling the material. of the cover 10 outperpendicular to the surface thereof to form a flange 26 around thefinished circular aperture 25. One end 27 of a tube 28, which may be arubber hose or the like, is then inserted into the opening 25 so thatthe flange 26 and the end 27 of the tube 28 are "concentric. The tube 28is then held fixedly in place by r'iieans of a clamp 29 placed aroundthe flange 26 with theend 27 of the tube 28 therein. The free end 30 ofthe tube 28 is adapted to be connected to a heater 31 in an automobile32, as shown in FIG. 1. While the end 30 of jthe tube 28 is connected toan opening at the front of the "heater 31 for simplicity in the FIG. 1,it should be understood that many automobile heaters do not have suchopenings and accordingly the end 30 would either be adapted to fit theoutlet of the heater being used or such an opening could be provided invehicles such as police cars, etc. Also, the end 30 may be adapted tofit over the opening of any standard car heater or it may be adapted tofit a specific car heater 31 such as the heater in a police car or thelike.

In the operation of the present invention the cover 10 and the frame 15along with the hose 28 are in general wrapped into a neat compactpackage for storage in a police car or the like. When an injured personis encountered the cover 10, frame 15 and hose 28 are removed fromstorage and assembled with the frame 15 in the loops 11-14 of the cover10. The cover 10 is then placed over the injured person so that he issomewhat centrally located thereunder and the frame 15 maintains theedges of the cover 10 contiguous with the ground.

flows over the injured personzmaintaining him relatively,

comfortable until an ambulance arrives.

While I have shown and described a specific embodiment .of thisinvention, further modifications and-improvements will occur to thoseskilled in the art.- I desireit to be understood, therefore, Xthatthisinvention is not limited to the particular form shown and I intendinthe,

appended claim to cover all modifications which do not depart-from thespirit and scope of this invention. Iclaimz 1. .1 A temporary shelterfor injured persons comprising:

(a) a flexible cover having a plurality of loops .positioned around thelower edges thereo (b) a rigid collapsible frame composed of separateelongated parts separably interconnected adjacent the ends thereofand'engaged in said loops of said cover prostrate human body receivingopening thereunder, (c) means for introducing warm air under pressure'Warm into said opening to at least partially inflate said flexiblecover and to maintain an injured person thereunder at a comfortabletemperature including (1) a flexible conduit having one end thereof incommunication with said opening, and (2) means for attaching the otherend of said conduit to an internal'automobile heater providing warm airunder pressure; and v (d) at least one opening through saidcoveradjacent said frame forthe exhaust of air from said shelter.

References Cited by the Examiner.

UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,168,913 8/1939 Middleton 1351 1; 2,201,9845/1940 Clark 135 514 2,314,830 3/1943 Hunter 135 1 2,943,634 7/1960Morgan 135-1 3,029,558 4/1962 Odenkirk 52+2 X" 3,059;6 57 10/1962 Turner52- 2 1 FOREIGN PATENTS.

139,048 2/1920 Great Britain.

HARRISON RJMOSE LEY, Primary Exwniner. for defining in combinationwith-said cover a single, 25

CHARLES E. 'oco ELL, Examiner. A. I. BREIER, Assistant Examiner.

